SAN JOSE — An East Bay man has been charged with attempted murder and weapons crimes after authorities say
he shot and wounded a Mountain View police officer during a traffic stop this past weekend, according to prosecutors and court documents.
Jeffrey Thomas Choy, 39, of Union City, was arraigned Wednesday in a San Jose courtroom, where he answered to charges of attempted murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, and carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle, all felonies.
Additionally, Choy was charged with misdemeanor counts of possessing a firearm while being the subject of a protective order, hit and run causing property damage, and destroying or concealing evidence.
Records show that Choy has a previous attempted robbery conviction in Alameda County and has an active restraining order filed against him in that county. He was also the subject of an arrest warrant in Santa Clara County after being charged with a weapons violation — for which he posted bail — and for failing to show up to a related June 21 court date.
Choy appeared briefly in court in red jail clothing with a surgical mask covering his face, and Judge Shelyna Brown remanded him back to the Santa Clara County Main Jail, where he is being held without bail. Brown ordered Choy to return to court Sept. 7.
“We charged a man with trying to murder a police officer, firing a gun at the officer at point-blank range,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said outside the courthouse Wednesday. “But for a few inches, but for wearing a protective vest, but for the officer’s reflex, we would be having a funeral or memorial service and this would be a murder case instead of an attempted murder case.”
Mountain View Police Chief Chris Hsiung said after the arraignment that the officer, a five-year department member whose name has not been publicly released, is recovering at home. Investigators stated in a one-page case summary accompanying the criminal complaint that the wounded officer was shot in the left forearm, and a second round that hit him in the left shoulder was absorbed by his bulletproof vest.
The shooting “wasn’t just an attack on the police officer, it wasn’t just an attack on the police department, but really an attack like that is an attack on the community,” Hsiung said. “We are checking in with him every single day … and we do anticipate seeing him very soon back at the police department and back on the streets of Mountain View.”
He added that the shooting is why officers are made “acutely aware of the dangers that every traffic stop poses.”
The shooting was reported around 12:40 a.m. Saturday when the Mountain View officer was conducting a DUI enforcement shift. He stopped the driver of a gold Ford Explorer after seeing the vehicle run a stop sign near Villa and Hope streets, and then drive through a four-way intersection.
The officer was walking up to the driver’s side of the vehicle near Wild Cherry Lane and saw both of the windows of that side rolled down, and then reportedly heard the sound of someone racking the slide of a handgun. Soon after, the officer saw the driver “lean forward and point a black colored semi-automatic handgun out of the driver window and directly towards him,” according to the summary.
That sight was corroborated by body-camera images released by police. The driver fired two rounds at the officer, who by that point had turned around and dove toward his patrol vehicle, police said. After he was hit twice, the officer was taken to an area hospital and was released later that day.
After the shooting, Choy drove away but traveled less than a mile before he crashed his vehicle near Higdon Avenue and ran away, police said.